


Rain

by traintobusan



Category: ITZY (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, God I still don't know how to tag, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, all i know is gay angst eat hot chip and lie, blink and you'll miss yuna and chaeryeong, date of soulmates death tattoed on wrist, death is obviously involved in the plot, i mean kind of a happy ending, i'm a sucker for soulmate aus and angst so you know i had to do it to em, lia is a barista, no real descriptions but mentions, ryujin is kind of a loner, so please be cautious if you're sensitive to that!, this should probably be edited more but, who let me use this website
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-12-01 22:10:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20914979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traintobusan/pseuds/traintobusan
Summary: Ryujin wasn't sure what she expected, when she woke up with the tattoo on her wrist, but it definitely hadn't been for the date of her soulmate's death to already have passed.





	Rain

The eighteen years Ryujin had waited felt like a million.

She never had friends in that time, but she still witnessed others get it. Some were happy, some woke up to the news of their soulmate with an entire life to live ahead of them, years upon years of possibility to find them and share their lifetimes. Some were worried, with only several years, or mere months, Ryujin had overheard once, at a cafe she’d often visit. 

In all her time of waiting, she worried. What if her soulmate only had months, too? How would she find someone, of several billion possibilities, in time?

It’s raining on the day she wakes up with it.

Ryujin is greeted by a distant, stinging sensation at her wrist before she’s even awake. It doesn’t hurt, but it feels weird, almost like she wants to scratch it. She knows better than to do so.

It takes her several minutes to realise what’s happening, the day it was. The moment she does, she sits up straight, letting the several blankets around her tumble forwards. She feels it, at her wrist. It’s there.

Her heart races at the thought of what’s waiting for her on the other side of her arm. It’s only one movement away from everything she’s waited to know, yet she can’t bring herself to look for another minute or so.

The girl takes a long breath, her eyes shutting as she moves her wrist into view. 

Slowly, her eyes open.

And it’s really there, right in front of her. Amongst the soft skin of her arm, the intimidating black ink that every individual waited their entire lives for. A date, clear as possible to read. The date her soulmate would die.

The date had already passed.

Ryujin reads the date, again and again. She even brings her finger to run over it a few times, as if it’s a decoy for the real one hiding behind it. 

There’s no way. Something like this isn’t possible.

Maybe she’s dreaming.

It’s not real. This doesn’t happen.

But it doesn’t go away, it doesn’t change, and she doesn’t wake up from a nightmare.

Nearly two months ago, the date tells her.

She still waits. She spends her eighteenth birthday just how she imagined, a meal with her family, a nice outing with them. But she’s distant, distracted, constantly feeling on the verge of tears. She sees couples, happy pairs of people walking together, eating, and laughing. And they’re not her, they won’t ever be her. 

Her hope is minimal, but for another day, even two, it’s still there. She doesn’t bother to look at the mark at her wrist, pretends that it isn’t there in hopes that it’s magically changed.

It hasn’t.

On the third day since waking up with it, she sits in front of her laptop. Her fingers are reluctant to type it, but she does, she has to. 

She searches for it, the date of her soulmate’s death. She experiments with several searches, first in Korea, then in Seoul.

And soon enough, something comes up that catches her eye. 

Hwang Yeji, nineteen years old.

Died on her way to hospital after a car accident. 

Ryujin feels like she can’t breathe. There’s a photo, one of the girl graduating, with the brightest smile she thinks she’s ever seen. Her eyes are bright too, full of light and hope, long hair perfectly framing her face. Everything about her is perfect, Ryujin is sure that the girl meets every requirement to be a model. She looks normal, happy. The short haired girl wants to believe that too, that the gorgeous, lively girl in the photo staring back at her is just that. 

But everything else says otherwise. 

Her Instagram isn’t hard to find.

There’s more photos of her smiling, almost every one in fact. She was a dancer, it appeared, and a talented one, Ryujin decides after watching some of the dances she’d covered in various videos throughout her account, between photos of her with friends, family, on outings, doing the simplest of things like watching the sunset, or stopping to pick some flowers for whoever was behind the camera. 

Every post is flooded with the same comments, of people saying how much they miss her, how she was the last to ever deserve such a thing. 

Ryujin’s fingers run through her hair, tears threatening to spill across her cheeks at any moment. It felt right, an unexplainable sureness in her heart, that Yeji was her soulmate. If it wasn’t for such a feeling, she would have still had doubts about the situation, that it all could have been a coincidence with the date on her wrist, and the date the girl died. 

But she was completely convinced. 

Letting a shaky sigh fall from her lips, she begins to close her laptop. What else is there to do? It’s not like she can go out and find the other. It’s when something catches her eye, she straightens the screen again. 

A particular photo Yeji had posted, with a small group of friends, all close, smiling, having the times of their lives. She recognises one of them, the one seeming closest to Yeji’s age. 

Lia, that was her name. Ryujin recognised it, she knew the other. Lia worked at the cafe that the younger often visited, and while they weren’t quite at friend status, sometimes they did have brief conversations, when the cafe was rather empty, and Ryujin was feeling particularly lonely, in search of someone to just discuss the simplest of things with, like the weather or the upcoming events in the city. 

It’s all a blur, between Ryujin leaving her home, making her way to the cafe although it’s rather late. But she needs to see Lia, needs to know everything about the girl that had been her soulmate.

When she arrives, sees the small building still open, she hurries inside, quickly enough to gain some weird looks from the few customers inside. She almost considers it a miracle when she sees Lia at the counter, busy sorting through the register. The older girl looks up open hearing a customer enter, and her face briefly lights up upon seeing the girl she recognised. 

“Ryujin, right? What can I get you, the usual?” Her voice is somewhat more natural than the generic, customer service one she’d give the majority of the individuals that ordered from her.

“No—No, no coffee. I need to talk to you.” Ryujin answers with a slight shake of her head, watching the expression of confusion cross the older’s face.

“What? I—“

“You knew Yeji, yeah?” 

“How did you—“

This time it’s Ryujin’s turn to shake her head. Maybe she’s being completely out of line in this situation, maybe it wasn’t her place to bring this up so suddenly, in fact, she’s quite positive it isn’t, but she needs to know. 

She moves her wrist forward for Lia to see, making a little gesture towards the tattoo to confirm that’s what she wanted the other to look at.

The other, from behind the counter, frowns in confusion, but gently takes the younger’s arm in her own hand, moving it so she can clearly see what’s waiting at Ryujin’s wrist. 

Lia recognises the date immediately. 

Her eyes widen, looking up to meet Ryujin’s gaze. The younger’s expression is desperate, and Lia’s overwhelmed with everything at once. 

“We close in fifteen minutes.”

So Ryujin waits. At a table in the corner of the cafe, she sits, fingers tapping nervously against the wooden surface, watching Lia rush to make the last orders of the day, reorganise a few things at the counter, clear half a dozen tables.

It feels like an eternity before the other sits across from her. Lia had made Ryujin her usual order, although she hadn’t asked, she figures it may ease the tension of the situation a little. 

The younger gives a very faint smile to thank her for the kind gesture. When Lia places the drink in front of her, she notices her own mark at her wrist, and an unfamiliar strike hits her heart. Lia’s soulmate had another seventy years.

She’s the one to break the silence. 

“She was beautiful.” Ryujin speaks softly, looking to the drink, where her hands had instinctively gone to wrap around the cup for warmth. Her hair falls over her shoulders as she looks down. “I never knew her. I didn’t even know who she was, or that she was here.”

Lia gave a sad chuckle. “Yeah. She really was.” She too, looks down to the table, distant in thought. “I’m sorry you had to find out about her this way.” Her tone is sincere, and it makes Ryujin feel a little less alone. 

“What was she like?”

There’s a period of silence, Lia’s eyes still down. 

“When she smiled, everyone smiled. She was so happy.” The older sighs. “She danced, it was her passion. She was going to make it big, we were sure. So talented, she was. Everything she did, she gave her all. And she cared, so much, about everything, everyone. God, she was such an amazing friend. I would do anything to go back in time and thank her for that.” 

Ryujin shakes her head gently. “I’m sure she knew that you appreciated it.” 

Lia just chewed at her lip for a moment. 

“I can see, why you two were soulmates and all. She would have loved you.” 

Ryujin, who’s gaze was on her wrist, at the numbers she’d grown to hate more than anything, looked up. “Really?” 

The other nods. “Really. I don’t know you well, Ryujin, but I knew her well. She was so excited to meet her soulmate.” Another little chuckle came from her. “She wouldn’t shut up about her tattoo for weeks. And you... You would have been perfect to her.”

The younger hadn’t imagined herself smiling throughout this conversation, but she can’t help it at the words from Lia. 

The two sit in the dimly lit cafe for hours. They talk for the entirety of the time, or rather, Lia talks, and Ryujin listens, but it’s peaceful. 

It’s a few days later when Lia introduces her to Chaeryeong and Yuna. 

Ryujin immediately adores them, the small group are more sweet to her than she’d ever imagined anyone being.

The two are just as understanding as Lia, and tell Ryujin everything about Yeji. From how she did in school, to the inside jokes they shared, and everything in between.

Ryujin feels as if she’s quickly getting to know them as much as she is Yeji.

It’s a few months until she’s confident in saying she’s, for the first time in her life, found a group of friends, one that loves her, just as much as she loves them.

It’s also a few months until she asks them to take her to see Yeji.

The grass is soft, and the air is light. There are soft, grey clouds above her, threatening to rain, but she still feels safe. They ask her a dozen times if she’s sure she wants to be alone, and Ryujin promises them she is. In a way, she’s not alone, either. Yeji is there too.

Her fingers gently trace over the words on the headstone. “Hwang Yeji.” She reads aloud, very softly. There’s a light wind, blowing her hair to the side. 

“I’m sorry that I never got to see you, Yeji. I wish I could have seen your smile, at least once, and told you how beautiful you are.” She sighs, her eyes going to her wrist as they always seemed to, the date a reflection of the one on the headstone. “I feel like I met you, like I knew you for years, from what I know about you.”

It’s starting to rain, but Ryujin doesn’t seem to notice until the drops begin to make a neat pattern over the concrete. 

Just like it had rained the day she woke up with the tattoo.

Maybe that’s why the rain always makes her think of Yeji.

“When I first saw the date, I was sure it was a mistake. How can my soulmate be someone that’s already gone? But now—“ Ryujin’s eyes close. “Now I know that nothing is different. You’re not here, Yeji, but you’re still my soulmate, and you always will be. And maybe it’s stupid of me to think, but I wouldn’t rather it be anyone else.” 

She pauses.

“Thank you for being my soulmate, Hwang Yeji.”

And for the first time, Ryujin is content with the tattoo on her wrist.

**Author's Note:**

> this is kinda not my best and kinda quickly written but we out here
> 
> [my cc! leave requests or feedback if you like](https://curiouscat.me/CHENJl)


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